Oct 8
1871
The day Chicago burned
On this day in 1871, the Great Chicago Fire erupted on the city’s Southwest Side. It started in a barn owned by Patrick and Catherine O’Leary, but there’s no truth to the popular belief that it was caused by a cow knocking over a lantern. What actually happened remains unknown, though some believe it was a milk thief. Nearly 300 people died, more than 17,000 buildings burned, and 1 in 3 Chicagoans were left homeless. Mrs. O’Leary faced particular scorn, and it wasn’t until 1997 that she—and her cow—were officially exonerated.
READ MOROct 7
Prints and Photographs Division/Library of Congress Washington DC (LC-USZ62-14092); Photo Illustration Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Featured Event
Paula Bronstein/Getty Images
On this day in 2005, an earthquake struck the Pakistan-administered portion of the Kashmir region and the North-West Frontier Province (called Khyber Pakhtunkhwa after 2010) of Pakistan. One of the most destructive earthquakes of contemporary times, it killed as many as 88,000 people.
Featured Biography
Ron Edmonds—AP/REX/Shutterstock.com
Jesse Jackson, civil rights leader and the first African American man to make a serious bid for the U.S. presidency (in the Democratic Party’s nomination races in 1983–84, 1987–88), was born this day in 1941.
More on October 8
© Andrew Cowie—AFP/Getty Images
2013
I Am Malala, a memoir by Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai, was published. In 2014 she became the youngest person to win a Nobel Prize.
Chris Hondros/Getty Images
2004
American domestic lifestyle innovator Martha Stewart reported to a federal prison in West Virginia to begin her five-month sentence for insider trading.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
2001
In Italy’s worst civilian air disaster in nearly 30 years, a Cessna took a wrong turn on a taxiway at Linate Airport in Milan and crashed into an SAS airliner about to take off, which exploded, killing 118 people, including 4 airport workers. [Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about aircraft and air travel.]
Copyright Wesolowski/Sygma
1982
The Polish legislature dissolved the trade union Solidarity, which subsequently became an underground organization and played a key role in ending communist rule in Poland, with its various leaders, notably Lech Wałęsa, later holding important government posts. [How much do you know about European history?]
© Karsh—Rapho/Photo Researchers
1967
British politician Clement Attlee—who, while serving as prime minister of the United Kingdom (1945–51), presided over the establishment of a welfare state in his country and the granting of independence to India—died at age 84. [Take our quiz about notable prime ministers.]
Courtesy of the OAS (Columbus Memorial Library)
1895
Argentine politician Juan Perón, who served as president of Argentina (1946–52, 1952–55, and 1973–74) and founded and led the Peronist movement, was born. [Take our quiz about South America.]
Public Domain
1856
In Canton (Guangzhou), Chinese officials boarded a British-registered ship, the Arrow, arrested several Chinese crew members (who were later released), and allegedly lowered the British flag; the event contributed to the start of the second Opium War, in which Britain and France battled China. [Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about China.]
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Fletcher Fund, 1941 (41.67), www.metmuseum.org
1809
Klemens von Metternich was named foreign minister of Austria; he revived the country’s standing in European affairs, and his organization of the Congress of Vienna maintained
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